Klautke, EF; (2019) A New World? German and French debates about America and Europe during the First World War. In: D'Auria, M and Vermeiren, J, (eds.) Visions and Ideas of Europe during the First World War. (pp. 76-92). Routledge: London, UK.

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Abstract

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the USA had developed into a political and economic power that challenged the established Eurocentric world order. Simultaneously, the European nations were increasingly confronted with economic competition from the USA when American companies successfully entered European markets and began undermining the dominance of French, German, and British manufacturers. Despite many condescending comments about American materialism, lack of culture and refinement, and the general deficits of the American ‘character’, genuine anti-Americanism was rare in French and German publications before the First World War. With the outbreak of the First World War in the summer of 1914, debates about the possibility of a future ‘Americanization of Europe’ came to a sudden halt, even if only for a short period of time. During the first years of the First World War, academics, journalists, and intellectuals in all European nations engaged in a ‘war of words’ that sought to justify each nation’s position in the conflict.

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